As I mentioned in my latest life update, the excruciating lockdown Melbourne was in for over 2 months finally ended and I had to let myself relax because socialising was a thing again! Not to mention that the Christmas season is insane when you have a big family. So I didn’t read much in December but I’m overall super proud of myself for my reading this year. Even if blogging took a back-burner sometimes, I don’t feel bad about it either and something 2020 taught me is to let go and enjoy reading and blogging for what they are: hobbies. I’m not going to be taking things too seriously or pushing myself too hard – but later on for my 2021 goals. Here’s what I read in December!
What I Read In December
I really didn’t read much, I was too busy wrapping up work, destressing with other hobbies (mainly watching HIMYM again) and finally meeting up with family and friends now that I can.
The biggest thing that I did was DNF Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare. It was sad but I realised that I really wasn’t enjoying it at all, so I took the plunge and stopped reading it. I’ll prob read a recap before I get into Chain of Gold this year but wasn’t a fan of TDA, sorry guys. The two books I did read, I generally enjoyed but I’m more excited about the clean slate 2021 will give me to read even more as I have more time with celebrations wrapping up.
Total Books: 2 (+1 DNF)
Total Pages: 867 (not including DNF)
The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon
★★★★★ (4.75/5) | MINI-REVIEW TO COMEDefending the Galaxy by Maria V Snyder
★★★☆☆ (3/5) | REVIEW TO COME
Blogging Highlights
Blogging was again put on the back-burner because of my schedule but if you’re interested on the 2 blog posts I put out, here they are:
I Must Confess [but I still believe] | My Book Blogger Confessions
End of Year Wrap-Up!
This year I read a total of:
90 Books (including DNFs)
30, 729 Pages (not including DNFs)
I’m super proud of myself for reading so much and doing the opposite of getting into a slump during lockdown and isolation. It was surprisingly fun to get back into reading and find passion for it again.
Despite taking a huge blogging break for months this year (another hiatus, I know), I managed to keep writing AND achieved my best year statistically with a total of 13,838 views, 1,020 likes and 400 comments. Thank you all for the support! It means a lot and motivates me to keep blogging. It was a little unbelievable that I’m only a few followers away from having 300 WordPress followers! Thank you so much! It still baffles me that my little blog (which I feel like I neglect a lot) gets so much love and attention from readers.
2021 Reading & Blogging Goals
In 2021, I’ve again put my reading challenge at 50. I have just over 75 books on my physical TBR and 8 books on my digital TBR so my main goal is to read most, if not all of my physical and digital unread books in 2021. Seeing that I smashed my goal of 50 books this year, the goal is to smash it again and maybe perhaps read 100 this time.
When it comes to blogging, I’m going to give myself the same goal of blogging twice a week. Which will be difficult because I had a tendency to post 4 times a week when I’m super inspired to read and write…then blog once a week maybe when my schedule gets hectic and my reading slows down. I hope that in 2021, I’ll be able to master the simple 2x a week consistent blogging schedule I’ve always wanted to achieve. So far with the first few days of 2021, I’m doing alright already with this being my second post of the week 😉
As I mentioned in my confessions post, I also want to do more to promote other bloggers, blog hop more often and try to come up with some original bookish content (no guarantees tho, work is tiring yo).
January TBR / Summerween TBR
In January, I’m super excited to be participating in Oliviareadsalatte and Gabbyreads’ biannual readathon, Winterween. But, because it’s actually summer in Australia, I’ll technically be doing Summerween (which happened in June/July 2020).
I won’t be following any prompts but it’s really motivated me to finally read some spooky (specifically WITCHY) books and get into the Summerween mood. I’ve only set a TBR for this week-long readathon so that I can just pick up whatever afterwards based on my mood.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
This has been on my TBR for forever and I do eventually want to finish this series and watch the TV show. I’ve always been a fan of witch stories and it brings me back to my teen goth phase that I fondly look back on. I love witchy things and can’t wait to get into this one.The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
This is a beautiful book that I bought recently (the only book I bought in November/December) because it screamed witchy goodness and I had recently gifted it to a friend. Later, I found out that this book is also sapphic, another reason to read it asap – and thought this would be perfect for this readathon.
I do have a couple of other books I’d like to read but the 2 books on the above TBR are quite thick and to read all that in a week is already pretty ambitious so I’ll see how I go.
How did your 2020 reading go? What’s a goal you’re hoping to achieve in 2021 and what books do you want to read this month?
Until next time,
2 Comments
Malka @ Paper Procrastinators
I can’t think of anyone that consistently blogged through 2020. It was a rough year, and many of us needed to take breaks frequently just to remind ourselves to breathe, even if we were taking a break from a hobby we loved. I mean, I’m just now getting back into the swing of blogging and blog hopping, and I honestly don’t expect it to last, since school is starting again in a month. But I’m going to try my best!
I’m so happy that you had such a fantastic year in terms of stats! We did as well, which was in part because for the very first time we blogged for all 12 months, even if we weren’t consistent with how frequently we posted!
Best of luck on your 2021 goals! I can’t wait to see what this year brings!
Tracy
That’s awesome that you blogged at least once every month in 2020! I think I blogged nearly every month except for 2? When I went on a big break in March I think, maybe, I can’t remember haha but yeah, I think that’s also what’s great about blogging – although we’d all love to blog consistently, there aren’t like restrictions or set rules – blog when you want because you want to! Life gets so hectic as well, we definitely all saw that this year with the pandemic. Good luck with your 2021 goals too š